Description
The gorgia affects the voiceless stops /k/ /t/ and /p/, which are pronounced as fricatives (or, more precisely as approximants) in post-vocalic position (when not blocked by the competing phenomenon of syntactic doubling):
- /k/ →
- /t/ →
- /p/ →
An example: the word identificare (to identify) /identifiˈkare/ is pronounced by a Tuscan speaker as, not as, as standard Italian phonology would require. The rule is sensitive to pause, but not word boundary, so that /la kasa/ (the house) is realized as .
(In some areas the voiced counterparts /ɡ d b/ can also appear as fricative approximants, especially in fast or unguarded speech. This, however, appears more widespread elsewhere in the Mediterranean, having become standard in Spanish and Greek.)
In a stressed syllable, /k t p/, preceded by another stop, can occasionally be realized as true aspirates, especially if the stop is the same, for example (appunto, note), (a casa, at home, with phonosyntactic strengthening due to the preposition).
Read more about this topic: Tuscan Gorgia
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